Donald Canty, 1929-2005: Lover of architecture and social justice

Updated 10:00 pm, Thursday, December 15, 2005

Seattle's Donald Canty loved jazz, good food, social justice and architecture that engaged the concept of the public good.

Even though he had polio as an infant and walked with difficulty, he was an indefatigable traveler and lifelong pingpong player, never giving an inch in closely fought games with his seven children.

He was devoted to his wife of 53 years, Joan McGowan Canty. "Both of them have had health problems in recent years and have been in and out of hospitals," said son Kevin. "Their entire priority was to get home and back with each other. That force could move whatever. It was a green seed coming up through a sidewalk."

He is best known as an editor of magazines about architecture and urban design. Born in Oakland, Calif., he began his career on the West Coast as an editor with Western Architect and Engineer, moved to New York as senior editor of Architectural Forum, and founded the influential but short-lived magazine City, devoted to urban planning, poverty and racial justice.

He wrote three books: "One Year Later" in 1969, a response to the Kerner Commission Report on urban violence; "A Single Society," also 1969, an exploration of what its subtitle called "Alternatives to Urban Apartheid"; and an appreciation of Alvar Aalto's Mount Angel Abbey Library in 1992.

He edited and partially wrote "The New City" from 1970, which helped lead to the passage of the first comprehensive federal legislation on urban growth, and "American Architecture of the 1980s."

Architecture magazine won several awards for excellence and design while he was at its helm, and he became an honorary member of the American Institute of Architects and was given its AIA Institute Honor award in 1983.

"We grew up in a big, chaotic family," said his son, the renowned Montana fiction writer Kevin Canty.

"There was always somebody extra for dinner or somebody staying over upstairs. In the basement, rock groups were practicing."

Canty's two youngest children became musicians: Brendan is the drummer for the punk band Fugazi, and James is the keyboard player and guitarist for the avant-garde punk group French Toast.

"I don't think Dad went to their concerts," said Kevin. "He'd heard enough through the floor." Canty was an amateur jazz pianist and listened to jazz constantly.

"It's the kind of family with Louis Armstrong on the record player and The New Yorker on the coffee table. Dad was a liberal Democrat all his life. The last thing we found in his typewriter was a draft to a letter to the editor berating George Bush for lying us into a war."

All the Canty children are engaged in work they love, said Kevin. Dennis is a consultant for environmental groups; Mary works in film and video production; Hilary is a quilter; and Susan is a mezzo-soprano and president of the non-profit D.C. Cares in Washington, D.C.

Canty is survived by his wife, his children and 10 grandchildren. A memorial service will be held today at 12:30 p.m. at Immaculate Conception Church, 820 18th Ave. The family asked for donations in his honor to go to Northwest Harvest, P.O. Box 12272, Seattle, WA 98102.